Giancarlo Fisichella’s hopes of pushing his way up the starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix have taken a dent with news of a three-place grid penalty for the Italian. The Force India left the pitlane while red lights were showing at the beginning of Practice 1 on Friday and will be docked three positions from his final qualifying slot as a result. The experienced Italian exited the pit lane at the start of the first official practice session at the Istanbul Park circuit when the pit exit lights were red. Under race conditions such a breach of the regulations would result in disqualification but in this instance, the stewards of the meeting have imposed the grid-place penalty on the 35-year-old that will take effect after Saturday’s qualifying. Fisichella has targeted Q2 in qualifying since the beginning of the 2008 world championship but has so far been eliminated at the first hurdle at all four races so far this term.

Turkish Grand Prix 2008

The Qualifying race will be aired Live on Star Sports India on 10th May 2008 at 5:30 p.m.

The Race day will be on 11th May at 4:30 p.m. IST on the same channel. From there we proceed to the actual race at 5:15 p.m. which should last for about two hours followed by a ten minute Chequered Flag event for ten minutes after the race.